History's Most Banned Books
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 พ.ค. 2024
- Discover the untold stories behind five banned books! From Orwell's critique of totalitarianism to Nabokov's controversial Lolita, delve into the censorship battles shaping literature's legacy. Watch now for a captivating journey through literary history!
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banning animal farm and 1984 is incredible irony.
Yep
It’s lost on them unfortunately
even more ironic it was American "conservatives" who banned it.
Lefties: hold my organic beer.
@@kobusvanrensburg4092
far right trumpists: "we are banning books for liberty"
"moms for liberty" and other groups
If your faith can't be questioned, is it really faith?
Yes. If it can be questioned, it's called knowledge.
Press X for doubt
They are disillusioned. They even merged their constitutional institutions and amendment with their sacred text. The state should be secular and emphasized freedom of speech. That's why they are the most hard to convince since they've been exposed to their faith for all of their lives.
That is why I am not allowed at my Ole church.
fuck em all
When Mark Twain heard that his Huckleberry Finn had been "banned in Boston" literally, he sent the Massachusetts State Legislature a two word telegram. It read: "Thank you."
Sales skyrocketed across the nation.
I remember on the show "M*A*S*H", they were trying to get a copy of a supposedly salacious movie that was "banned in Boston." Major Winchester pointed out, "Boston would ban 'Pinnochio'." lol
Back in the 1990s, there was an attempt to ban *Of Mice and Men* in my province (Alberta, Canada). This was led by one of the MLAs (representatives in the provincial legislature) in my city, who was determined to have this book removed due to it's "bad language," among other reasons.
The result? Every copy of that book was promptly borrowed from every library in my city and the surrounding towns. The waitlists were months long. Every copy was sold in the bookstores, including second-hand bookstores. People were so curious to see what all the fuss was about that there was an explosion of people reading that book and then laughing at the MLA who had responded to the pleadings of a bunch of uptight right-wing fundamentalists in a neighboring city who couldn't get their own MLA to take them seriously.
It was one of the funniest political stories that happened in my province back then.
@@Shan_Dalamani I remember the episode but don't remember the book's title. Was it possibly Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead."?
@@anthonyperno1348 Did you mean to reply to RussellFlowers? He mentioned M*A*S*H. I was talking about something that really happened in my province.
I've seen most of the episodes of that series, but don't recall this one.
@Shan_Dalamani sorry yea I am old and internet challenged - sorry lol
The other common denominator of all these books is that they're referenced the most by people who've never actually read them, and thus understand their content the least.
I read everything I could get my hands on in my youth. Classics from swiss family Robinson and baeuwolf to Stephen kings the dragons eyes and when I was introduced to Lolita I was in fact myself too young to understand the taboo. Later finding it cringy. The anarchist cookbook was a waste of money lol. I'm sure there are more dangerous books in the chemistry section of any library vs baking morning glory seeds or taking lots of nutmeg from your moms spice rack. Orwell remains a favorite his prose is in my opinion beautiful. The last book I haven't read.
Kevin Smith did a genius thing regarding the protests over Dogma. He showed up.
He is the writer, director, and even has a major role in the film as Silent Bob. He showed up with a sign that read 'Dogma is Dog Shit'. Some nice old ladies made him black out shit, so it ended up 'Dogma is Dog'...
But the point was this; if anyone there knew ANYTHING about the movie, they'd have known who he was. They didn't, therefore....
They were school assignments when I was young!!! 70s and 80s
Almost everyone around my parts have read most of them for they are required reading during high-school.
In orwells case specifically, ive met a shocking number of people who are well versed in his writing and still completely miss the point and either see him as a scathing anti-socialist critic, or see his works as purely anti-capitalist soviet propaganda. The truth- to me, about orwell is that he was a closeted anarchist
Orwell meant his books as warnings. He never expected they would become how-to manuals.
Maybe it's true that life imitates art
Same goes for The Handmaid's Tale.
That's not true, Eric Blair aka George Orwell was a player in the agenda. You can't get so many things "right" without also knowing what is going on and being part of it. Also he doesn't point out the real enemy which likes to remain hidden, only talking about the affects rather than the cause. You want actual warnings I suggest books printed in Germany by the Party in early last century.
That's not true, Eric Blair aka George Orwell was player in the agenda. I suggest books printed in Germany in the first half of the last century if you want real warnings
"Alternative facts"
"Fake news"
"I won"
I'm glad you described Lolita as a challenge to the reader. If you feel uncomfortable while following Humbert throughout the book, especially when you find yourself getting drawn into it and empathizing with him, it did was it was meant to. You've seen how easy it is for monsters to walk among us. They have human faces.
I tried 30 years ago and didn't get very far thru it.
I was aware of it's acclaim and controversy
Ok pedo..
There is a book, titled Reading Lolita in Iran I think. Helps understand it….Dont understand it as well.
I think it should just be accepted that some of us can't get through it, despite its literary value. It bothers me too much and it always will. I don't call for it to be banned, but I know it's not for me unless I want nightmares
I saw a digest version of the movie.
Nope. Just, nope.
Hilarious, slightly but not completely off topic but, Graham Chapman, one of the members of Monty Python. When asked what he was most proud of, he replied: “I made three out of four films banned in Ireland.”
I hope my memory is right on this one, but when The Life of Brian was published it was banned in Norway. In Sweden the movie was publicised as 'The movie so funny it was banned in Norway."
@@Kim_Miller Life of Brian is mid at best tho, very "product of its time" with a lot of naked hairy hippies and penises being punchlines. There's a reason the only Python movie people quote all the time is Holy Grail. The rest didn't age well.
@@KasumiRINA says you. You're obviously not an "ex leper." 😉
@@nickfoster9350"He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy."
@@Kim_Miller haha that's hilarious, definitely not going to fact check, before I repeat it to my Norwegian friend🤣
1:00 - Chapter 1 - Animal farm
4:20 - Chapter 2 - 1984
7:35 - Chapter 3 - Lolita
10:10 - Chapter 4 - The anarchist cookbook
13:05 - Chapter 5 - The satanic verses
Thank you!
Banning that anarchist cookbook would be pointless since one can buy US army manuals covering improvised weapons and guerrilla warfare, etc.
It's available for download for free anyway, right?
@@byronic-heroine yes, just like most of the "banned" stuff
Also 99% of everything in the cook book is absolutly wrong. It is a good what not to do book however.
Yep. And it goes into much more detail.
I used to have a copy of it
What happened to Salman Rushtie is disgusting
As long as one person practices the Islamic faith there will never be peace on earth.
@@windrider65 as long as anyone who practices any religion there will never be peace on this earth. Religion is the cause of all evil.
It was actually stunning to me that he lasted for so long without this happening. Dunno if that’s UK security or Muslim laziness
Very true. They are nothing but evil monsters that need to be removed from the earth. @@windrider65
@@dearthditchvideo said he rarely left his house because of the threat
Rushdie was in hiding for many years, but in recent years he was not. And then the horrible attack. I'm so glad he survived. He said he is going to write a book about that whole incident.
He already did. The book is called Knife and will be released this month.
@@fabrislemos Thank you!!!! He's one of my favorite authors!!
@@lesliewells-ig5dl Rushdie's new memoir, KNIFE, is a really good read. It's a story of ideas, recovery, the life of a writer, and (surprisingly) a genuine love story (between Salman and his wife, Eliza, and also between Salman and his family). I think he's a very evocative author--and also quite funny.
@@susanalfieri4487 I'm really excited about it. I'm on the wa9list at the library, so I should have it soon. Did you read his memoir Joseph Anton, about his years in hiding? Midnight's Children is my favorite novel!!!
@@susanalfieri4487I'm on the waiting list at the library for it, so I should get it soon! It sounds really good!
There's a book called money's hidden magic, and it talks about how using some secret tehniques you can attract a lot of money, it's not some bullshit law of attraction, it's the real deal
11:58 what is truly ironic is sending someone to jail for possessing a book because you may be thinking about a crime….
The uk cause we pretend to be free
Thoughtcrimes.... I wonder where that came from.
Minority Report.
@@ayescream4131 the uk sucks, lol
UK is safer for it and we know it. Less guns and bullets means less gun deaths. Less terrorist training manuals means less terrorism or stupidity killing from someone just trying it out. We don't fear everything and need weapons to defend ourselves from every boogeyman you see. One day the US will grow up into a mature country.
fun fact Animal Farm was written in 1943 but publication was delayed to keep the Soviet Union on-side during the war.
The Soviet Union was automatically on the side of anyone who opposed Hitler because it was the country with the most death toll in absolute numbers and her population was deemed inferior by the Nazis.
However, she probably would have tried to take over much more of Europe once Hitler was defeated.
That makes no sense, like they were going to join with the Nazi's?
@@tedwojtasik8781yes but they were occupying all of the east
I've read a couple of books on this list, and the book by Rushdi is actually very well written, entertaining and with a deep cultural understanding of Middle Eastern Muslim culture. It _is_ an attack, but not on Islam. Rather it is an attack on people seeking political power thorough religion. I can see why Khomeini felt threatened by it, but from a religious point of views it is hardly more damaging than most other speculative religious fiction.
He also just stated the Islamic lore but added a bit of spice to it. A lot of believers aren't aware of how messed up Islamic lore actually is just like it's Biblical brethren
@@shatteredteethofgod , indeed!
@@Mustafa70116dude what part if islamic „lore“ is missed up ?
When you depict the prophet Mohamed as a liar who used the revelation for his gain, depict the fellowships as drunken idiots and depict the wife’s of the prophet Mohamed -the mothers of the muslims-as (not gona said it ) then you’re insulting Islam and muslims . There are many ways to criticize religion but not like that
@@yousifali6349 , it's a bit like Life of Brian by Monty Python. Some Christians took offence to the to it, even though Brian was clearly _not_ Jesus (in the start, we see Jesus being born in the stable next door). In Satanic verses, the story you cite are Gibreel's dreams, very much a result of Gibreel's own disposition and personality. Gibreel, the Bollywood leading man, is a bit of a dick, despite his onscreen presence where he often portray highly regarded political and religious figures. The book is mainly about hypocrisy.
You are however right in that the story do not show respect, it is a religious fable written by an atheist author. Then again, religious people cannot demand other show their religion respect. One can demand people show basic curtesy, but respect for their belief is only something they can show themselves.
People got so upset about a book that they literally killed one guy and tried to kill Rushdie… Does anyone else think that sounds insane?
Religion of peace just doing its usual thing 👍
I mean….. no Abrahamic religion has a great history of being peaceful to be fair. But yes, it’s absolutely insane.
@@louieo.blevinsmusic4197 Yes you're right about that, but Islam specifically is often called "the religion of peace"
Lol are you joking? It's like you don't know what Muslims are like.
I love how people come with "all the religions are the same" whenever someone mentione the insanity of Islam.
No they are not. No other religion in 21 century condemned an author. This would only happen to people who reference Islam in their works, Even in a favourable way. Look what happened to Moustapha Akkad who had directed the movie "the message" which depicts and glorify the life of Muhammad. They killed not only him but his family.
Sort of proves Salman Rushdie’s point
I always heard the 1984 references, but when I actually read it, I found it to be so amazing. the plot, the characters, the complete and utter control by the state to the deepest levels of your humanity.
Have you tried out Huxley's Brave New World yet?
Yes, places like North Korea probably use it as a guide book.
Orwell's vision in 1984 was a product of its time and it's themes have proved redundant, at least in the western world. Western democracies have full and complete control over their citizens through consumerism. Happy little idiots buying and killing themselves for useless toys.
It's a double edged sword though because all those concepts do exist to some extent in our world... but whenever they're mentioned by name by people referencing 1984 they're not applicable at all. The tragedy of not being ignorant to the publics idiocy.
Case in point, this comment section where people think 1984 is corporations logging your public information to sell you ads through an entirely automatic process while they themselves doxx, mass report and email employers en masse to try to get people fired for espousing the wrong positions on issues or sometimes not even that, just expressing the wrong coded language is enough for some communities.
I think surveillance is bad but jesus christ you can literally find a community of people to support any ideology you want from nazism, to communism to unironic stalin/mao supporters and government nor corporations don't lift a finger. The only aspects of our culture that are 1984-like come from the people.
More people need to read it. It’s not a wild fantasy by any stretch of the imagination.
The timing of this video is incredible for me. I’ve been ordering used books so I have the unedited versions. I especially went after classics that have been on banned lists.
Yeah my huckleberry fin just calls him Jim. I want the unedited version
I have been doing this, as well.
That sounds like a fascinating collection! Also sounds like you'll appreciate them properly 💙
U read books? What a NERD 😂
FBI watch list
Banning books is ridiculous, all they do is make the books more desirable. Most of these books were part of required reading lists when i was in school. They helped develop my love of reading.
I mean they also have a points. If the book were for "how to kill a president" it will be bogus and will be ridiculous to publish it.
Banning a book says more about a regime than the book itself. There are plenty of books about serial killers, does that mean serial killing is considered a less serious crime than paedophilia?
I think the message of Animal Farm is wider than just communism. You have a violent revolution and get rid of one load of ghastly parasitic tyrants, and five minutes later you have another set just as bad. Not just the Communist revolutions but one could include the French Revolution, the English Revolution following the civil war etc. Revolutions rarely solve your problems.
There is NO massage in that BS book It was made by a evil communist to try and destroy the west.
Now this I agree with.
There was the American Revolution.
It's not anti-revolition at all! In fact, Anima Farm laments the crackdowns on Kronstadt rebellion (the hens throwing eggs). The other point is right, it's not ONLY anti-communist, it's anti-authoritarian in general, so is 1984 but by the time he wrote the latter, fascism was defeated and the only auth ideology that was big was Soviet. Orwell wrote against that because it was the relevant thing. He also wrote against other harmful ideologies like pacifism, which George called "objectively fascist" during wartime. Very relevant today as "peace" groups tell us to surrender and face extermination rather than fight back even after seeing what russians did in Bucha, Mariupol, Izium...
I strongly disagree with it. Revolutions rarely fix all of the societal issues. Sometimes they even back fire. At the same they often push society forwards
Like with the French Revolution. It was bloody, the new democratic goverment was unstable and quickly replaced by an authoritarian. Guess which system of govermence is rare nowadays? Monarchy
French Revolution has proven that kings don't really have the protection of God. They only rule the state because we, the People, allow them. This revelation (and WWI) caused fall of centuries old monarchies in Europe
Poland went through multiple failed uprisings before we were able to gain independence. One school of though argues that they were are all pointless, a waste of human lives and resources. Some people argue that they kept the idea of Polish state alive and as such (if you care about things like that) they were at least partially successful
It's difficult to calculate success or failure of a revolution because we don't know how our world would look like without it. Maybe monarchies would fall without French Revolution. Maybe many of them would survive even WWI. It's ridiculous to say they had no positive impact on modern world
Animal Farm was initially de facto banned in the UK because the author could not find a publisher. At the time, the Soviets were our best buddies, and no one wanted to upset them. However, that soon changed, and publishers stepped forward.
Is Animal Farm only about Soviets? Pretty sure I live in a nation where some "pigs" are more equal than others, and have "dogs" to back them up.
The virgin anarchist cookbook vs the Chad organic chemistry textbook
U read books? What a NERD 😂
There's also Unlce Festers manuals lol I'm surprised none of them got brought up like "Secrets of Methamphetamine Manufacturing"
@@glenpatton2576 methamphetamine synthesis is so incredibly trivial though.
@@danielscott3178 one example of the many books by Uncle Fester
I can understand maybe not having SOME books available in grade/middle schools, even less unavailable in high schools, but in college and at public libraries EVERYTHING should be available. Honestly though, at least in many countries, book bans are pointless because of the internet. "Removed from the internet" is basically impossible lol
Public libraries are open to the public however. And kids are not magically confined to stay in the kids section of the library. Meaning it's far less likely, but still very possible for vastly inappropriate books to still easily get into a kid's hands. I don't believe in mass state censorship, especially by people who haven't bothered to read the work. But I can understand parents' anger if they suddenly found their kids with a book about say prostitution or serial killers when they only looked away for a minute.
@@Upintheairideas In my own experience, our local library wouldn't allow a child to take a book about serial killers or prostitution. Thats only my own narrow experience, though.
It ultimately rests with parents to be aware of what their children are doing, not any sort of government intervention.
@@Upintheairideas It depends on the library and its policies. The public library in my city requires a paid membership to borrow books, and kids' library cards would only allow borrowing from the kids' section. I remember the day when I turned 13 and got my blue card that would let me into the adult section, and felt quite grown-up. And then I really went to town on the science fiction section!
If you ever listen to anything while reading comments, let it be this go to borlest and read the forbidden money books, then come back and thank me
In my opinion, "1984" is one of the most important books ever written. Growing up in Canada, it was assigned reading when I was in high school in the early 90's. I recently re-read it, and it is just as provocative and profound and incredible as ever.
"The Satanic Versus" is SO good; convoluted as it is, I found it immensely entertaining. The fact that fanatical, fundamentalist Muslims are so deeply offended by this book, makes it that much more of a compelling read.
Orwell was right: Big Brother *is* watching... and you probably signed up for it with a user name, password, and a quick click of "accept" for the privacy policy you didn't read
Hopefully it's a cool username...
We've known this since Snowden, over a decade ago. Nobody cares.
Let him watch and hear, life goes on😅
Even if you didn't, you did somewhere else and they'll just sell your data anyway. There's no escape.
Does that include you?
I can understand “banning” children from reading books containing heavy topics, like animal farm or a certain austrian dictator’s book, but once a person reaches adulthood (in my instance 18 years old) they should be able to read whatever they want
It would really depend on maturity level and maybe hate-filled views and tendencies
That Austrian dictator book is not on Simon's list of banned book, btw.
its a really difficult topic. I know what i wanted my children sheltered from...so i think this is a parental issue
@@gorilladisco9108 Where has it been banned?
@@NoNameNoFace-rr7li The problem is when someone decides what other people's children should be sheltered from even if the parent thinks it's a topic kids should be allowed to explore if they choose to. Are children property?
I loved Animal Farm as a kid 😅 talking animals! I didn't get it til I was older. I've read 1984 and I look around and feel like Orwell was prophetic in that novel.
How the F describing Stalin (Napoleon) overthrowing Trotsky (Snowball) is "prophetic"? He literally just described then-new Soviet history. Nothing else. All events in it are just allegories to things that already happened in USSR.
The librarian at my school when I was in sixth grade had me read Animal Farm towards the end of the year (when I was still an immature, naive 11-year-old, but such an advanced reader that I had read pretty much everything else on offer in the tiny library of the small K-8 Catholic school I went to that year, so she was running out of things to give me to read). I thought it was a hilarious book about talking animals and it was only in high school when people were talking about it that I realized the book was not just a funny story!
As a fourth grade teacher in a gifted and talented program now, I’m running into similar struggles where my kids are such advanced readers that they can fairly easily read advanced books (the type that you often see middle and high schoolers reading) and answer comprehension questions on those books, but the themes and content in these higher level books are often too much for 9-year-olds. My solution so far has not been to hand them Animal Farm, though. The librarian that year did teach me that lesson.
You read books 🤢
The pen is mightier than the sword, right up to the point where you're confronted by someone with a sword.
Soo.. what you're saying is it isn't mightier?
No 16 people and counting are missing the point.
I think there’s another… something about a mine in a camp or something like that
You talking about "My Struggle"?
Yeah, people don't like talking about that one.
@@TheAzulonyeah, some dude was upset with goblins with big noses stealing money, I’m not entirely sure.
Mine craft guide 1930s edition
It's definitely banned in Germany and Poland. I can't say I blame them. I'd be surprised if it weren't.
Historians probably view it as an artefact, a piece in the puzzle of how we got from a rejected painter to millions of corpses.
@@TheAzulon It's out of mein kampfort zone.
There’s this one church group that held a book burning… some lady showed up and started throwing bibles in lol
Fairnuff
I've seen a vid of a church that meets in a circus tent - hate preacher Greg Locke is the pastor - that had a book burning, along with all sorts of other stuff like Harry Potter figures etc. One man started tearing up a book and telling people what it contained. Then he told everyone it was a bible. A bunch of heavies surrounded him to 'safely accompany' back to his truck and out of the area.
The russians are mass burning all Ukrainian books, including Bible translations. And West still welcomes them into their countries and then we have news of another Ukrainian lade stabbed in Germany so russians would take her child... It's always the same.
@@Kim_Miller now that is some big dick energy.
@Kim_Miller please link the video I think it's brilliant 😂. That guy is a legend
Are you sure it's still accurate to describe 1984 as taking place in a fictional world?
Yes because nothing in that shit book is or ever could happen in real life.
Only in so far is that today is not 1984. After 9/11, this door was cracked open, and will never again be shut.
Why are there so many of you evil communist still around. @@jenniferlindsey2015
@robertsears46 WOW why sobitterlittlefella? Didyougetmisgenderedagain, ordidsomeonenotuseyourpreferredpronouns? 😂!
@@jenniferlindsey2015To me, the saddest and scariest part of post 9/11 culture and post C-D 19 culture is that we do this to ourselves initially. And then like the vampire who is invited into our home, chaos and control develops. Then we as a mass try to remove the scourge we asked to manipulate us.
We (general culture) live in a world where we are worried about a big brother government creeping into our life when we more than freely give up our identity and information on a free game for faux bonus coins.
At some point we need to stop worrying about Big Brother so much and start doing something about protecting ourselves in the little ways.
We are truly our worst enemy.
Bulgakov’s book, “The Fatal Eggs” wasn’t printed till after his death. I’ve never heard if it’s banned again in Russia because it was critical of the soviet system. It’s worth reading as is his book, “The Master and Margarita”.
Bulgakov was a russian ultranationalist, being born in Kyiv, he wrote several books full of hate speech against Ukrainians and Master and Margarita is mostly about brown-nosing muscovites. Don't read russian authors when they're literally trying to exterminate the entire world with their ideology FFS!
The Master and Margarita is one of my favourite books. It’s a cracking read full of very unusual characters and scenes that will stay with me forever (Satans ball scene with the fireplace acting as a portal from hell is incredible) I’ve yet to read anything classic written by Russian authors that I didn’t enjoy!
I'm a fan of yours and a life long resident of Bay co. FL. The ban on Animal Farm was lifted shortly after thanks to a Federal lawsuit launched by a group of students, teachers, others. Being 53, I believed I actually learned about Animal Farm possibly shortly after the ban (9th or 10th grade, a little difficult to remember, been a long time). Something to think about, thanks and carry on.
I had to read Lolita for a college lit class and nobody wanted to ever have any meaningful discussions about it despite the professor trying to lead people to more thoughtful responses. It kind of made me not want to even try to say anything positive about the writing due to potential responses from my peers... one of my favorite segments involves the main character comparing himself to a kangaroo while hobbling down a corridor with a pistol... I don't recall the exact wording but just that it stood out to me.
congratulations, you now know how difficult it was for the authors of such books. Peer pressure is a strong force
It's horrible that people are forced to read russian "culture" abroad. Actually insane that they force their paedo "art" on humans and Western governments are okay with it.
It is especially amazing that it was written in English by someone who was not born or raised in an English speaking country.
Nabokov was a brilliant writer, and a master of the English language. Correction, he was just brilliant, period. Try "Pale Fire" if you want some fun. It is presented as a posthumous publication of a poem, heavily annotated by "a close friend" with wildly fanciful interpretations of the meaning of the passages. Knowing Nabokov, it is likely a satire on literary critics and academics, in part.
"I see myself following him through the hall, with a kind of double, triple, kangaroo jump, remaining quite straight on straight legs while bouncing up twice in his wake, and then bouncing between him and the front door in a ballet-like stiff bounce, with the purpose of heading him off, since the door was not properly closed."
The pen is mightier than the sword but often the one who wields the sword gets to decide who Wields the pain
ArE yOu ReAdY tO fEeL tHe PAIN?
"The penis mightier than the sword." - Samsung ads
He's the Universal Soldier and he really is to blame
His orders come from far away no more
They come from here and there and you and me
And brothers, can't you see?
This is not the way we put the end to war
That's deep lol did you find it off reddit or something
@@Rakeshgupta-iy7lm it's actually from a song called universal soldier.
Hah, my advert during the 1984 segment was for 1984 on Audible. I always love comparing banned lists around the world and seeing which ones crop up more than once. Animal Farm is my personal favourite; I thought it was genius when I first read it as a kid (sorry Simon, I also read the Count of Monte Cristo in primary school!). I did prefer Brave New World over 1984 though, which I didn't expect. 😊
We had a unit on dystopian lit while I was in HS. Brave New World was my favorite as well! Something about how lurid and sensationalized the society is just really drew me in.
@@melrachelm I thought it felt very modern, in a way, like it could easily have been written in the past couple of years. I didn't know what to expect and I think that played a big part in my enjoyment. I would have loved a dystopian lit unit ❤
@@runoncaffeine My Grade 12 year in English had a lot of dystopian stuff. Of course it was the late '70s, so it was during the Cold War when we didn't talk about IF World War III would happen, but WHEN, and it was expected to be nuclear.
Stuff like that really does a number on a person's mental health when you're exposed to such a large dose of dystopian stuff over a short time. Grade 12 English included Hamlet (everybody dies), Cry, the Beloved Country (apartheid in South Africa), and numerous post-apocalyptic novels on the reading list and in assignments, including Edwin Muir's poem "The Horses."
Coupled with the social studies curriculum that term (everything was about war and revolutions), things got a bit much for me in November that year, after reading The Chrysalids, and one night I had a hell of a nightmare about my own city being nuked. It touched off an anxiety attack I have never forgotten, since it freaked out my cat so much that she actually had to bite me to distract me and calm me down. That was in November 1979.
He starts to shake
He starts to cough
Just like the old man in that
Famous book by Nabokov ...
Animal Farm and 1984 were required reading in high school here in California in the 1980s. They even did a play of 1984 and my sister was in it. I had a report on Animal Farm somewhere from high school.
Actually the inspiration for Orwell's Ministry of Truth in '1984' was the Ministry of Information at London's Senate House where his wife worked for the censorship department. Orwell started out thinking that the censorship, propaganda, and gaslighting were necessary in times of war but as it increased, widened, and deepened he began to hated the censorship he was forced to buckle under during WWII. Basically Oceana isn't based on the USSR or Nazi Germany but Wartime United Kingdom. It is actually ironic that the BBC now has a statue of him out front as their headquarters.
How's that ironic? Was the BBC running the censorship department?
Damn good book.
Ministry of Magic
It's a based on UK "what if" scenario when under communism, which, thankfully, didn't happen. Hey, still not too late for Tories to crown some KGB officer, they got lordship already so...
@@SugarandSarcasm Yep. If you want a different take on Harry Potter, there's a fanfiction story called *New Blood* in which Hermione is sorted into Slytherin, and manages to become wealthy enough (by finding the Philosopher's Stone, stashing it in her Gringotts vault and of course the Goblins use it to turn lead into gold for her) to buy the Daily Prophet to make sure that the news reports about Harry and Voldemort are the truth, not Ministry propaganda.
It's quite a long story, though. It's up to about 540 chapters and the author is only covering the Goblet of Fire events. She does intend to do the entire series, but it'll probably take awhile longer.
No book should ever be banned or destroyed. If you bring it into the world, it is now the whole of our collective consciousness that must cope/learn with its creation forever.
All these very evil books and the evil communist that made them should have never been aloud to exist in the first place.
All these books hgave done is make people that read them pure evil monsters and terrorist.
As I've told a couple weeks ago when a far right party (as in they've done "the salute" a lot of times before amongst a lot of hate speech) got their biggest voting ever in Portugal ... If you don't learn from history, it's doomed to once again become reality
Let's be honest. A ban only works on lower level minds. Anyone up there will realize, "hey.. WHY is this banned? Let me read that"
Those who burn men first burn books.
Animal Farm was my Literature paper for my GCE O level exams in 1980. Thoroughly enjoyed my lesson and so thankful for Fantastic Teacher who had taught my class!
From what I can find from just 15 minutes of research on the topic, the satanic versus, or at the very least the references Muhammad makes to the pagan goddesses, was not debunked. It appears to have a decent amount of evidence behind it. Would you mind pointing me to where your writers found their information on the topic? I would love to learn more, and I understand that a few Google searches is not always the best way to find reliable information.
All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others. Also, these more equal animals definitely should sleep in beds with sheets that can be used to their own end. Maybe that was a figure of speech and maybe it wasn't.
The Satanic Versus is a great book; I would recommend it to anyone for a great read.
The whole premise of the book is based on a false report, Ibn katheer in the 14th century (as well as other scholars) said that the chain of narration (aka Isnaad) for the so-called "hadeeth" is very weak and is not saheeh. See Ibn Katheer’s refutation of this in his tafseer of Surah al-Hajj 22:52
This proves what an incredible writer and person Orwell was. I can't say I *enjoy* reading his books, but their power and brilliance is undeniable.
I'm just glad Orwell wrote Animal Farm...without it, we never would have been graced with (imho) Pink Floyd's best album...Animals.
Frankly, anyone who reads and understands Lolita would come away with similar feelings towards the main character that you would for the State in 1984. Nobokov definitely does not endorse his character's behavior in there, and it's a fantastically written book that more people should read without all these preconceived notions.
Nobody should read russian authors writing about rape, torture and murder while pretending they're "totally against that". Like Dostoyevsky's ax murderer memoirs, Tolstoy's armies crapping in fountains, or Nabokov describing what current day russians are doing to kidnapped Ukrainian children.
'The Anarchists Cookbook' was circulatung in Australia 🇦🇺 during the 1990s.
They're photocopies wrapped in DIY binding materials found in any office supply store.
Here in the States, Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" has often been banned for various reasons which led Twain to comment, "That will be good for another 10,000 in sales!" Book bans often backfire because they turn a work into forbidden fruit.
William Powell was my high school principal for a few years. He was very nice. Didn't make any money of the book, never collected royalties on its publishing. He said he was also testing freedom of speech laws.
One guy named his airplane the Lolita Express. He did not kíll himself.
Diaper Don's own words when speaking to New York Magazine about that one guy:
“I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it, Jeffrey enjoys his social life.”
"Jeff" then died while Diaper Don was president before an inevitable plea deal and release of very damaging information.
Even his ex wife, who wrote about his abuse of her in her autobiography, "fell down the stairs" before being buried on his land.
Isn't that all very suspicious?
@@Backpfeifengesicht45 of course it is. Speaking of diaries, have you looked into what was written by Sleepy Joe's daughter in her diary? The diary that the FBI raided someone's house to try and find. Suspicious, yeah?
@@Backpfeifengesicht45Suspicious seems woefully inadequate for how many alarm bells "Jeff" set off.
@@Backpfeifengesicht45 my comment was removed for some reason... I tried to say yeah and someone named Joe has a daughter who wrote a diary about daddy and the feds kicked down someone's door to try and find it. Pretty sus huh?
@@realPinkfong any attempt to deflect will be ignored. The man in power at the time, whose ex wife died in strange circumstances soon after coming out with allegations, also had strong links to the deceased. Links that Diaper Don has tried to bury.
At 7:42 - what the hell is "noncery"? Google was as clueless as I.
"Nonce" is British slang for a paedophile. So "noncery" would be paedophilia.
'Nonce' is English prison slang for a räpist or child mölester.
I think we should adopt that word in the US. No such thing as too many insults for them.
Kiddie fiddling
@@byronic-heroine While I agree more terms would be good, noncery, to me anyway, is far too posh.
Having read 1984 when I was younger, I was surprised by the information in the video that it was supposedly banned in Yugoslavia. It may have been at some point, but the first translations to Slovenian and well, Serbo-Croatian were published in 1967 and 1968, with the English and the French versions being available as early as 1949, at least according to the records of the National Library. The book has been re-published regularly since the late 60s.
USA citizen here, Animal Farm I read in an Alaskan school 25 years ago, now it seems to be taken off school curriculum, as well as multiple other books like The Giver, 1984.
I had to read animal farm at the highschool i whent to a few years ago pretty sure i had to read the giver in middle school. i completely forgot about that until i read that comment.
It might just be the “track” the kids are on. I wouldn’t have read a lot of classics, ironically because I was on the advanced/AP college bound track. I read some of the most influential literature in my life thanks to getting put in an “average” English class. The teacher was amazing, and I’m grateful for having been exposed to “Lord of the Flies,” “Animal Farm,” and the movie “Metropolis.” I also never liked “The Simpsons” until he explained in detail how it was actually satire of life in America. I never looked at it in the same way after that.
When I was made to read Animal Farm in school it was definitely used as an anti-Stalinist tool. However, there were those that thought it also put Leninism in a good light, and we all know now that while it was better than in Stalin's time, was no picnic either.
What?! Lenin was more evil than Stalin. Lenin invented every horror that Stalin did later on. Stalin sin was to live 30 years longer than Lenin.
@@gorilladisco9108 No. Lenin was pretty awful too, but most of the terrible things that Stalin did were his own invention. The purges, the gulags, all of it.
@@OrdinaryDude I know it shocked you, as much as I was when Time magazine stated that in their millennium special edition of famous people of 20th century (it was more than 20 years ago). I thought Lenin was the good guy, but no. And internet made it easy for me to verify.
The purge and gulags were started during Lenin time (you can search for "Red Terror" and "Solovki Prison Camp" on google). The reason their notoriety was attached to Stalin was because he did those for 30 years. But he merely copying them from the evil mastermind.
All the horror of Stalin were invented by Lenin.
Notice that the 2 books banned in the US were banned in Florida, those two from George Orwell, the same place in the last few years that has banned many of other books, which has fueled the banning of books in other very red states in the US. Even though it is clear that those behind those recent banneds got a lot of their fascist ideas from the book 1984, but on the side of Big Brother, those in power in the book and the bad people, not the main character! They seemed to have learned how to make that future a reality!
Prepubescent children don't need to be exposed sexual concepts. Grow up
@@usonumabeach300nobody knows what you're even talking about. I guess you also never had a look at a list of the books the fascist Republicans have banned.
Fascism and communism are completely different things....
have you read 1984? because if so, you dont want to show THOSE scenes to little kids. get a grip
Wrong
1984 should have been named 2024, its like most leaders in the western world got together and read this book in the last 10 or 15 years and decided to use it as a blueprint.
Ah yes, the Western world, toothless, useless, and weak leaders of the West are somehow totalitarian dictators controlling every facet of life and forbidding sex with ministry of truth erasing all news from opposite views and not, like, being so pathetic they let russian, Chinese and Iranian propaganda run unchecked.
Russia maybe. Western countries are more on track to become like Huxleys brave new world
What aspects do you think are similar? Let's name a few buddy.
@@TheInfectous Oh, please. If you have a smart phone, you're already under 24/7 surveillance. Unless you use cash, every other purchase you make, large or small, is tracked.
I read animal farm when I was 12 and it scared the hell out of me.
Why would you read a book wrote by a evil communist?
It's funny that Bulwer-Lytton is known for such a brief, pithy observation, when he's also known for the most wordy, turgid, overwrought to any book anywhere, so much so that there's a fiction contest named after him that awards the worst opening sentence to a potential novel that any entrant can come up with. It goes:
It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents-except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness.
I prefer Snoopy's version: "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out!..." and somehow his story meanders around to a girl and boy falling in love on a farm.
I used the "dark and stormy night" as the prompt in a writing contest some years ago. I was curious to see where the participants would take it. I told them the only requirements were that the story had to take place in a dark place, at night, and there had to be some kind of storm going on. They were free to interpret that however they saw fit, since not all storms have to do with literal weather (and by an odd coincidence, as I'm typing this comment, it's just started to snow here).
All of these books were banned in South Africa, by the censorship board, back in the day. No wonder I thought the Hardy Boys were risqué…
The Hardy Boys, risque? WTF? Let's see... Fenton Hardy is married to Laura (I think his wife's name was Laura). Frank's girlfriend's name was Callie. Joe's girlfriend's name was Iola (I think), and she was the sister of their best friend, Chet. In all of that series published up until at least the '70s or so, there is not one scene in which any of these people even kissed (that I can recall). There wasn't even much in the TV series (though in the 3rd season Joe was intending to marry until his girlfriend was murdered - then he went after the killer himself).
About the most risque thing one could ever say about the Hardy Boys wasn't about the books - but there were a lot of teenage girls in the '70s who had posters of Shaun Cassidy on their walls and bought his records (speaking from experience here). He tended to strut a bit when he was performing on stage.
@@Shan_Dalamani I was being very sarcastic. But the censorship was real, and over the top. I eventually got to see an uncut version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, in the late 1980’s.
@@jimmcdougall9973 That's a relief. My own views of risque were warped a bit due to my having been raised by my grandparents. I've always been out of step with my age peers in a lot of ways to do with popular culture.
There should be a part 2. So many other banned books such as Catcher in the Rye deserved to be discussed, too.
I love the question of whether or not 1984 is a book that reflects current events or not... and it totally does, but subtly.
Think about it. One of the main premises of the story, that the main character struggles against, is the constant and all-reaching surveillance. Cameras and microphones everywhere, including through the forbidden-to-turn-off TVs, mandatory in every home (provided by the Party itself to all citizens, how kind of them).
Today, most people walk around with a smartphone in our pockets... a device with both frontal and back cameras, and a pretty sensitive microphone, that *is* constantly recording everything, at least sound, gathering information on the user. How many times have we come across ads in social media on topics that we've just been discussing with other people, but verbally, never written on our phones?
As one memeable guy from a movie once said: "Coincidence? I think not!"... And surveillance is only the tip of the iceberg...
EDIT: Anyone surprised at the last one, I mean, *who* reacted violently, not just banning the book?
The reason why some people in the usa who banned these books is duely as they flirt with the exact things george Orwell called out.
Anybody who bans or burns books is the enemy
1984 is not only a critique of totalitarian regimes. Especially the parts regarding manipulation of language was a critique of current practice of governments at Orwell's time.
The language parts and the total surveillance are also reasons, why this book is still important today.
Lol, I got a Guardian advert for an audiobook of 1984 during Simon talking about it. 😂
First time I'd seen this ad, very timely!
Big brother's younger brother, Smart Brother must be watching out for you
One thing I will never forget as a result of studying Orwell’s, “Animal Farm,” is that, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Yes, I’m looking at you, #DonCorleone! 😉
If you try to buy that cookbook here in the USA you will be sent a letter by the FBI saying you've been put on a watch list for suspicious activity. Happened to a friend ulof mine. They sighted it as his second strike so we had some questions for him lmao
"Your friend" is full of BS
Of all the things that never happened, this never happened the most.
I wish I could say I was bullshitting.
Absolutely 100% happened.
But that's a pretty funny reply, I'm going to use that in the future.
Why lie if you're so bad at it
I have read two of those books, Animal Farm, and 1984 and to this day I still have issues with 1984. I wake up sometimes from nightmares from that book. It is sad and depressing, but also a great piece of literature. I’ve even had my daughter read both of the books.
I read ANIMAL FARM in the 7th grade, well before I had to read it in high school. I understood it pretty well and that helped me explain it to my classmates who were not really into literature later on.
By high school, I had started subscribing to magazines like ROLLING STONE and HEAVY METAL, which is literature of a different sort.
God bless Hunter S Thompson and Daniel Torres.
Thanks for the reminder to pick up Animal Farm and 1984. Read 1984 in middle school, but have yet to read Animal Farm. Been meaning to do that for... Oh, about a decade.
Damn ADHD.
I keep getting books, and I have read maybe half of what's already in my library 😭
I gave my cousin’s kids those books to read.
Wait. The people arrested with the Anarchist book were not tried or jailed for its possession. Maybe say why the guy actually got 3 years?
The Anarchist Cookbook banned in my country Australia? I'll have to find a copy but is it a good read?
When I was in 9th grade, it seems that our teachers realized that my class was the class of 1984. During the four years of high school, Orwell's novel was assigned reading three times for my literature classes.
Florida...that does not surprise me. They got it wrong again.
No honorable mention for😂 "Steal this Book" lol
Oh hey, I have that one... Hilariously enough, with it's receipt in it... Not my receipt...
I once had a shirt that said "I stole this t-shirt"
I stole it from my kids, who stole it from their father
I watched the cartoon in 1977 in elementary school. My daughter was assigned to read the book as a junior high student. Good stuff.
I think its a good rule of thumb to read all banned books. It makes you want to know what they're hiding.
Then there's the people who pretend book bans aren't real because someone may have had access at some point and time.
Yeah. Making it harder to get something, whether it's a book or voting, will keep people from doing it. I asked one of those people if every church of their denomination in a five-mile radius of a school was shut down to "protect the children" so that the closest church to them was a three-hour drive away, would they say their church was banned. Somehow, that was different.
That , and 1984 as well.
No mention of Naked Lunch by William Burroughs?
Animal Farm and Huckleberry Finn were book that we had to read in my English class in 8th grade. I ended up loving Animal Farm and it inspired me to read 1984 on my own.
China also banned Winnie the Pooh 😂
WTF? Why? Is honey against their communist sensibilities? Or is it because Pooh is a talking bear?
@@Shan_DalamaniI think it was because he didn’t wear pants
The basement is mightier than the pen.
I can't find any proof that 1984 was banned in Yugoslavia. I vaguely remember (it was a long time ago) reading it after getting it from my library.
The only thing I can find is a messed up summary created by a search engine which combined multiple unrelated stories.
Any reference would be helpful.
this honestly makes me wish you had something like a channel centered on weird books
Did anyone else get a TH-cam ad that began "Freedom is slavery" part way through the chapter on 1984?
yes, i did, exactly as you described, i had to come straight to the comments to see if there was anyone else, very strange
Nope I have TH-cam premium so I don't get ads
I also have TH-cam Premium, so I don't see ads. But I want to know more about this ad because freedom is ABSOLUTELY NOT slavery!
interesting catch
No, I got sick of bullshite adds so I got premium. But, now I have to find it.
The reaction towards the last book...
A long time ago, when I was a kid, a youth could get his hands on books from Paladin Press. These titles, there were several, dealt with topics as varied as lock picking, changing ones identity, and methods of revenge. These are now quite rare and would put a person o a watch list merely for searching for them. Also anything published by the IHR,, Willis Carto, or William Pierce are banned. These forbidden titles are considered not only subversive but evil, I suppose I am on some secret list ffor even knowing about them.
I happen to live like a 20 minute drive from where Rushdie was stabbed. This was one of the wildest pieces of local news in ages.
Dr. Seuss gets a bad rep. I still don’t understand why American media puts his books next to mein Kampf. I don’t see the resemblance.
If I remember right, I think it is because some current educators/ concerned adults found some of the artwork in one of the books r-cist because of how he drew/ wrote about a Chinese character on one or two pages.
There may be more than that, but I groaned, rolled my eyes, and prayed for better reason for all after I only read half the article.
The rewards from peace are sweeter than the rewards from war.
- Richard Nixon
"AHHHHHHH!!!" - Richard Nixon, burning in Hell
@@MichaelBNegron that's mean
I used the animated Animal Farm when I student taught 7th grade social studies in 1980.
Correction: with the exception of Big Brother, all the Orwellian terms quoted as having entered the language - Newspeak, Thoughtcrime an Doublethink - are only ever used in discussions of how amazing George Orwell was. H.P. Lovecraft coined more English words than Orwell.
Unfortunately, since he was a product of a 1900's New England culture and not the present enlightened era we currently live in, his accomplishments can only be acknowledged in hushed tones or with conditional statements attached.
I'm glad we think we are the first society to be blemish free so we can condescend all others.
How did we ever get so much wiser than the history of the world?
You clearly haven't read comments on Climate change, Gaming journalism and Toki pona videos
Is it me or does Ruhollah Khomeini look like Sean Connery ?
Yeah, they're both dead.
Okay, how can you read Animal Farm and think it's pro-USSR?
ask italian teachers
Gorbachev gave Ronald Reagan a copy of the collected works of Lenin at the Reykjavik disarmament conference, and said ,
"If you can find a single one of the things you allege Lenin said, I will personally come to the White House and eat it in front of you".
Nothing regarding de Sade???
Or Mein Kampf. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I know... Almost like he has an agenda